Building on a conversation begun at last year’s Jali Film Weekender, this lunchtime talk is a space we will return to at each edition, bringing together artists, filmmakers, programmers, cultural workers and community organisers to think collectively about what it means to centre Black, African and diaspora communities within film and the arts.
Last year, we asked how our communities can feel truly seen and included within Scotland’s cultural landscape. This year, we continue that conversation at a moment of heightened hostility towards Black and racialised communities in Scotland and beyond, asking what community-centred cultural work can and must look like in response. Why is creating spaces for our communities to gather, watch, participate and tell their own stories increasingly important? What responsibilities and considerations come with doing this work and how can arts and film spaces resist the narratives, divisions and exclusions taking hold around us?
Speakers: TBC
The talk is presented with a companion screening of John Akomfrah and the Black Audio Film Collective’s landmark Handsworth Songs at Filmhouse. Forty years on from its release, Akomfrah’s film essay and its exploration of race, protest, belonging and the ways Black British communities are represented and understood sits in enduringly relevant dialogue with the conversation.